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By: Jude Josue Sabio

IN several instances, as reported in video recordings and media coverage, President  Duterte was asked if it was true that he had killed or caused the killing of about 1,000 people, and he was heard, apparently in jest, saying that it was not accurate and that it was more.

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Now, a self-confessed hitman named Edgar Matobato, who said that he is close to Digong and has personally killed 50 people on Digong’s orders, tagged Digong as “Charlie Mike” who created the notorious Davao Death Squad from the original “Lambada Boys” and ordered the killing of more than 1,000 hapless human beings in Davao City.

Perhaps out of fear of Charlie Mike for a long time or perhaps he was just then Mayor of Davao City and nobody bothered about him,  this is only the first time on the national stage that a member of the DDS has testified revealing the gruesome details of the murders allegedly ordered by “Charlie Mike” or by his son now Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte.

One easily recalls Digong, on several occasions, announcing with bravado his now infamous words “I will kill you.”   He even told a previous Senate inquiry that if David Tan, the alleged rice smuggler, would land in Davao City, he would shoot and kill him.

To the millions who are not supportive of Digong, they are mystified with the ease that Digong would blurt out “I will kill you,” even one time bragging that he will kill thousands of drug pushers and throw their bodies to the Manila Bay where the fish would grow fat feeding on their rotten bodies.

But if the explosive revelations of Matobato were to be believed, it confirms no doubt the lingering, well-founded belief about an obvious pattern of criminal behavior and a deep sinister Mafiosi character lurking behind the psychotic psyche of Mafiosi boss “Charlie Mike.”

It would seem to explain why Charlie Mike can say, with discernible ease, “I will kill you” in his public pronouncements. It is not hyperbole. It is not a manner or habit of speaking, just like what is said by President Obama as Charlie Mike’s habit of mouthing cuss words.

If Charlie Mike says “I will kill you,” it’s probably because he has done it a thousand times.  To those like him in the know, Charlie Mike boasts about it by projecting himself as a legitimate killer who is their equal, if not their superior.  To his sworn enemies, Charlie Mike issues a serious, believable threat, because he is to be feared for his track record of killing. In short, he says what he has done a thousand times as mayor and is ready and able to do again as President.

For sometime already, talk has been rife about the DDS in Davao, but somehow it has managed to be just the stuff of urban legend. Now, there is real flesh to the ugly story. The details revealed by Matobato are so numerous and so specific that it would have been almost impossible for anyone to fabricate. The demeanor of Matobato and the straightforward manner that he testified would tell the former prosecutor Charlie Mike that the witness is telling the damning and haunting truth against him.

Of course, Justice Secretary Aguirre would downplay the testimony by claiming that the skeletons allegedly found in the mass graves were World War II vintage. But as a lawyer, Aguirre knows too well that Digong as mayor then has deadly and absolute control over the place and could have easily misled the investigators.

If there was nothing to hide in that mass grave, why would “Charlie Mike” order his assassins to lay in wait for then CHR chairperson de Lima and her investigating team for her to be ambushed. That is not consistent with the behavior of an innocent man who would even cooperate to uncover the truth and reveal his innocence for all humanity to see.

The ghost of a person who is killed will haunt the killer and ultimately find justice, because a human being is sacred. For Erap, who was alleged to have killed Bentain, he was ousted from office when his compadre and jueteng  buddy testified against him in the Senate.  Justice was served for the ghost of Bentain.

For Charlie Mike, it is all the more horrifying, because there are 1,000 souls haunting him, which probably explains his insomnia as a result of his conscience bothering him.  Just like Singson who testified against Erap, this time it is Matobato testifying against Charlie Mike. Whether an “upheaval,” as referred to by Leni Robredo, is in the offing is for the 1,000 souls to cry for from their resting places in the sea or in the mass graves in Davao City.

 

(Jude Josue Sabio is a lawyer by profession. He is from Misamis Oriental)

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